The real abortion debate that we need

fosters.com

Writer

Posted Nov. 18, 2012 at 3:15 AM

Posted Nov. 18, 2012 at 3:15 AM

One of divisive and ultimately deciding issues in this past election was over rape, abortion and who controls women's bodies. There were some unfortunate remarks made by a couple of Republicans running for Senate in Missouri and Indiana that caused concerns within the party about how to support those candidates. They were defeated most likely because of those remarks.

America has always had difficulty discussing women's reproductive issues. It's complicated enough trying to discuss the ethical intricacies of abortion within the right of a woman to control her own body, but when you throw in the position of the American Catholic Bishops against the use of any birth control and team that position with the concept of Freedom of Religion, the likelihood of finding an answer seems impossible.

Perhaps the key toward finding workable solutions lies with a starting point upon which most of us can agree: preventing unwanted pregnancies. Depending upon your personal beliefs, abortion is either the termination of a human life or the termination of a potential human life. Neither of those outcomes is desirable, but what life does a child have born into a world where neither parent wants them — as is often in the case of a child born as a result of a rape?

We are a multicultural society with varying opinions toward women's rights and abortion, but we all pretty much agree on the importance of reducing unwanted pregnancies. Those pregnancies can be the result of: rape, incest, alcoholism, adolescent rebellion and a lack of education or understanding about human reproduction — to name just a few reasons. One solution will not fit all cultures or all reasons for those pregnancies, so we must find multiple ways of addressing the problem.

A political campaign is the worst place to discuss solutions to women's reproductive issues, but it is a good time to get people thinking about the problem and to bring them together to look for common ground to build upon. Before legislating women's reproductive rights, we need to have a serious national dialogue defining the factors that lead to unwanted pregnancies. We want to avoid promoting one culture's values over another or excluding certain cultures from practicing their values. We also want to highlight the many programs to help women (and men too!) with counseling, education, adoption agencies and pregnancy prevention — including birth control.

Abortion is the wrong topic. For years, we've had various pro-choice and pro-life groups literally and figuratively shouting at each other about the fundamental rights and morals of abortion. We need to turn down the heated rhetoric and start respectfully listening to the concerns on both sides. Forcing a vote or forcing people to choose one position over another is only going to make finding amicable solutions more difficult. Those who are focused on supporting or overturning the Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade are missing the point. The problem of abortion existed long before the court ruling and fighting over the court's decision or even the composition of the Supreme Court only detracts us from the real problem. After all, if we could eliminate the demand for abortions, those services would disappear overnight.

It is precisely because we've approached this topic with adversity that we've made so little progress in the past forty years. Debating about abortion divides us. If we truly want to minimize or eliminate abortions in the United States, we must discuss ways of preventing unwanted pregnancies in a manner that can unite the disparate groups in finding solutions that we can all support. We may never fully unravel the complexities of abortion and unwanted pregnancies, but we can do a lot better than we've done so far.

Now that New Hampshire has all women in its top leadership positions of governor, senators and congresswomen representing both political parties, we are uniquely situated to lead the nation in this dialogue. Judging from the remarks made by the senatorial candidates from Missouri and Indiana, a constructive discussion about women's reproductive rights and unwanted pregnancy is long overdue.